Benefits and harm of antibiotics

The discovery of antibiotics - substances that inhibit the life of microbes is by right considered the greatestthe achievement of medicine of the last century.

For the invention of the first of them, penicillin, its creators were awarded the Nobel Prize.

Penicillin was particularly quick to use in the treatment of wounds during World War II and saved the lives of a large number of wounded soldiers, because due to its use, blood was contaminated, purulent wounds were cleaned and gangrene was prevented.

The use of antibiotics was so huge that penicillin was considered a panacea for many deadly diseases and a real magic wand for incurable patients, because with his help they learned to cure pneumonia, sepsis and even syphilis.

What is the harm of antibiotics for the organism?

However, as it turned out later, not all types of pathogens could be defeated with penicillin, for example, the causative agents of tuberculosis and typhoid fever were extremely resistant to it. Therefore, many famous scientists continued to work actively in this direction, inventing more and more types of antibiotics.

Now in the world there are already more than 100 different varieties of them, which in their action are divided into two large groups - a broad and narrow spectrum of action:

• Broad-spectrum antibiotics, as the name implies, actively affect a large group of some bacteria;
• Antibiotics of a narrow spectrum of action are effective only for a specific species.

Scientists have calculated that the massive use of antibiotics increased the duration of human life on average by 20 years, since they saved a huge number of people and save lives, forcing the reckless diseases to recede. There are few people on Earth who would not have to be treated at least once in their life.

But, unfortunately, the discovery of more and more new antibiotics led to the fact that they began to massively displace conventional traditional medicines and began to be used not only for the treatment of serious diseases, where they can not be dispensed with, but also in everyday practice.

There are frequent cases when for any ailments, such as a runny nose, headache or cough, people start using antibiotics unreasonably, although everyone has heard that it is unacceptable to take them without prescribing them, since it takes a long time to correct the consequences of their negative influence on the body.

Harm to antibiotics for children

It is especially alarming when pregnant women, nursing mothers and children are exposed to excessive antibiotic exposure.

The fact is that with the most common childhood diseases, such as viral infections( ARVI), antibiotics are generally useless, because they do not affect the viruses in any way, do not lower the body temperature and do nothing to alleviate the condition of the sick child.

However, in spite of this, according to the statistical data of the Pediatric Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences:

• Pediatricians prescribe antibiotics to children in 60-80% of cases with outpatient treatment.
• When treated in hospital, this figure reaches 95-98%, while the use of antibiotics is justified in only about 5% of cases of treatment of respiratory-viral infections.

The main harm of antibiotics is that they, unfortunately, do not work exclusively on microbes, and together with pathogenic microorganisms kill also useful microflora of the intestine, which is fraught with serious health problems.

According to the research of the famous microbiologist M. Bleyzer, the use of only one course of antibiotic treatment can reduce the number of beneficial bacteria in a child by 30-50%, while the average child by the age of 15-16 has time to get about 10 such courses, most often in early childhood.

The professor also claims that the harm of antibiotics is that:

• they for many years destroy the useful microflora of the child,
• contribute to the development of obesity,
• allergies,
• asthma,
• diabetes,
• reduce immunity.

He does not call for a complete ban on antibiotics, because in some cases they are vital, but indicates the need for carefully thought out and reasonable application of them.

Scientists warn that if such uncontrolled and ubiquitous use of antibiotics is not stopped, then by 2015 all currently known varieties will simply stop affecting microbes, because the latter have time to perfectly adapt to new conditions and simply stop responding to medications.

A paradoxical situation may occur when, in the presence of a huge number of powerful drugs, people will have nothing to treat because of their ineffectiveness. It is urgent to address this issue at the highest level, by conducting an active outreach work among doctors and the public.

For example, Chinese scientists have fully realized the harm of antibiotics for the health of the nation caused by their excessive use, and have developed a serious state program to monitor doctors and medical institutions in the country. According to this program, all hospitals are subject to thorough testing and, if unreasonably used, are even lowered in the classroom, which has serious consequences for the latter.

The use of antibiotics, or when their reception is mandatory ^

If your doctor, considering all the pros and cons, prescribes antibiotics for you, do not refuse, because, as already mentioned, they are vital for certain diseases and delay can cost you life.

• In these cases, you must strictly follow the doctor's prescription for dosage and duration of treatment, not allowing any initiative.
• Be sure to strictly observe the time of taking the medicine to ensure its constant level in the body.
• Do not interrupt the treatment before the due date, even if you feel the improvement of your condition.

This is a frequent and harmful misconception, because an untreated infection will necessarily resume with renewed vigor, and often with the repeated use this same medicine will become useless for you. In such cases it is necessary to begin treatment anew with the selection of new antibiotics, having lost valuable time.

How to take antibiotics ^

The most frequent consequences of using antibiotics are disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, such as vomiting, nausea, constipation or diarrhea, which occurs due to a violation of the beneficial intestinal microflora.

To reduce the harmful effects of medications on the gastrointestinal tract, it is necessary to take antibiotics according to certain rules.

Rules for taking antibiotics

• Try not to take medicine on an empty stomach so that food protects the mucous membranes of the stomach and intestines from direct contact.
• Drink them only with simple water, drinking it at least 2 liters daily, because water, being an excellent natural solvent, will quickly remove from the body the products of the decomposition of microorganisms and other harmful substances.
• During treatment, do not take fatty, fried foods and alcohol, so as not to increase the load on the liver, give preference to cereals, vegetables and other easy-to-digest products.
• After the course of treatment with antibiotics, pay special attention to the fastest recovery of useful intestinal microflora, taking in food yogurt, sour-milk products and baked apples.
• And be sure to strengthen your immunity, because strong immunity is a good protective barrier for many pathogens and viruses.